Sharing my eco lifestyle journey & the natural products I love

I have had an absolutely overwhelming response of support on my first post in this series, how to lose belly fat! Wow… I have been blown away by everyone’s kind words, and genuine interest in my weight loss journey. I don’t think I can say thank you enough! It means so much to me to have people in my court, encouraging me to go all the way in this challenge.

Week one of the belly fat challenge has gone by so quickly!

On Monday I received delivery of my Shrink capsules, and decided to take one right away… perhaps a little overeager to get going on the belly fat challenge! 😉

The way that Shrink works is that you take it for 5 days of the week and then have 2 days break. Since I do not take supplements regularly it made sense for me to take Shrink Monday to Friday, the days where I have the most routine.

I don’t know if it is all in my head, but I felt it almost immediately.

A kind of jitteriness, like I had had a few too many espressos. I am not an espresso drinker, but I can imagine that that’s how it would feel! It also felt like my hands were a little shaky, and I was suddenly HANGRY. Like don’t get in the way between me and my food!

On the following days I continued to take the capsule and then attempt to prepare breakfast while dealing with my children needing me in other parts of the house… I felt jittery and shaky and SO hungry at breakfast time. This is unusual for me. I have got into the bad habit of only eating breakfast around 9am or 10am, and am not usually famished at that time. Definitely a side-effect from the Shrink capsule. It is a good side-effect though, obviously my body needs the energy to help me keep my metabolism going and lose weight (and belly fat!).

On Friday I had a chat with one of my bootcamp friends who has also used fat burners, and she advised me to take the capsule right before I eat breakfast. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that before! So I will be doing that from now on… prepare breakfast, take Shrink, eat breakfast. That should help with the jitteriness.

One of the advertised benefits of Shrink is that it suppresses your appetite and stops cravings. I definitely found this to be the case… No more chocolate cravings! I only felt hungry when I was actually hungry, so I wasn’t eating all day long.

I needed to track my meals and calorie intake.

MyFitnessPal is my usual food tracker, however I discovered FatSecret, a South African meal tracking app, so decided to give it a bash. I tried to track my meals as I went along, but inevitably I did forget to every so often, so made a habit of checking the app before bed as well.

I only ate take-aways once in the week, on Friday, which is our usual pizza evening. Not ideal, but we had no ingredients to make a quick meal and I had been working all day.

Yup! That’s a week’s worth of meals…

In the beginning of this challenge I noted how I was not going to change my diet over the duration of the challenge.

That cracks me up every time I think about it! As the week progressed, and as I tracked my meals, I couldn’t help WANTING to watch what I eat. It’s as if it is a natural progression… I mean, if you’re telling everybody what you’re eating you’re probably going to start eating healthier. It’s much like the Hawthorne effect, where subjects being studied modify their behaviour due to the novelty of being studied. We will see how it goes, but I am considering cutting out carbs and sugar from my diet as far as possible.

It is recommended that one drinks at least 8 cups (2 litres) of water per day while taking Shrink.

I use a FitBit Flex to track the steps I take in a day, which is linked to an app on my phone. The FitBit app has a handy water tracking feature, so this is what I have been using to track my water intake. It is a little distributed, using 2 different apps to keep track of everything, but it hasn’t been too much so far.

Thankfully it has been hot this past week so I have not struggled to drink water at all… Perhaps the opposite actually, where I have felt as if my mouth is constantly dry and I have been very thirsty. Of course, what goes in must come out, and with so much water going in I felt like I had developed a pregnancy bladder all over again!

Another thing I experienced with Shrink…

Is the ENERGY! Wow, I have been on fire this past week… I had a vast noticeable difference in energy, which is great because I have had so much to get done! There were some nights where I would usually fall asleep with the kids but I was wide awake, and one night where I went to bed with the kids and woke up at 1am (!) bright and ready to start my day… I wasn’t too worried because I could get going with all the work I had to do. I think it has just been my body adjusting to the supplement. The time of day I have been taking Shrink is also probably a factor…

Sleep? Who needs sleep?! According to FitBit I didn’t get much of it this week. Also, what happened to Monday 6 Nov’s sleep data???

Bootcamp on steroids

This was the week that Lelani from LaniFit Outdoor Bootcamp added two more bootcamp sessions in the afternoons. So of course I had to do all.the.bootcamp! I went from 3 sessions a week to 5, with 2 sessions each on Mondays and Wednesdays. Boy, did I suffer! I was stiff the entire week, but by the end of it I could feel that I was fitter. I also noticed that my arm muscles seem to be more defined and firmer.

Note the 2 days that I did bootcamp twice in one day – Monday 6 Nov and Wednesday 8 Nov, I almost got to 10k steps!

And the results of the week are…

Body Measurements

Lelani took my measurements on Monday 13 Nov after my bootcamp session. This is the first official measurement, since I took my own measurements last week. I trust her measurements above mine since, as I mentioned last week, I am terrible at doing measurements!

The greatest difference is the bust measurement, mine may be incorrect, although I usually lose weight in the bust first, so I can’t really say… Another thing, I accidentally gave the measurement for my upper torso instead of my stomach last week! Oops! I have more belly fat than first reported AND Lelani measured me 2cm larger! 🙁 Next week should give a better reflection of my measurements.

As far as weight goes… I LOST 1kg in a week! Whoo-hoo!

So here they are… I have put the starting measurements in brackets ().

Age: 39

Height: 1.65m

Weight: 71.1kg (72kg)

Bust: 93cm (97cm)

Chest: 86.5cm

Stomach (belly fat): 98cm (82cm 96cm)

Hips: 104cm (103cm)

Thighs: 62cm (63cm)

Upper arms: 29cm (31.5cm)

Neck: 33cm (new)

Full body shot photos

I couldn’t do the swimming cozzie that makes me look like a giant blueberry again! 😉 I’ll do the rest of the photos for this challenge in this pair of shorts and (super) tight top… It definitely reveals my belly fat and love handles!

After 1 week of the How to lose belly fat challenge

After 1 week of the How to lose belly fat challenge

Do you have any tips to share on losing belly fat? Share your weight-loss journey story in the comments!

I was sent 1 bottle of Shrink: slimming made easy Dietary Supplement capsules to try out for this challenge

Hi! I’m Victoire, a South African homeschooling mom of two gorgeous preschoolers.

My eco lifestyle journey began a few years ago when I started cloth diapering my daughter. My awareness about my family’s impact on the environment, and the effect of the toxins in the products we were using just took off from there!

I have been blogging for over 10 years, and love the ability it gives me to share my passion for natural home, beauty and skin care products with you, my readers! I want to help you find the right natural products, available here in South Africa, for your lifestyle needs.